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| Cash-starved is Pakistan's major portion | | Rs 1.5 trillion spent on trial against Benazir? | |
B L KAK
NEW DELHI, NOV. 6: A highly sensational report just received from Islamabad: The Parvez Musharraf dispensation spent a whopping Rs 1.5 trillion for the trial against the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) supremo and exiled former Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto. Author of the report is Benazir's counsel, Babar Awan.
The Pakistani government, Babar Awan said, had failed to prove any coruption case against Benazir Bhutto and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari. Awan claimed: "The dictators constituted the accccountability institution with the sole purpose of keeping the biggest political party and its leadership out of the political process and spent Rs 1.5 trillion for this purpose. However, not a single allegation could be proved against the former Prime Minister".
He said that the recent disclosures by Abdul Basir Qureshi, Senior Prosecutor General (PGA) of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) against NAB Deputy Chairman, Hassan Waseem Afzal – the main witness against Benazir Bhutto – had exposed the "whole truth" about the references against Benazir. Waseem Afzal was recently replaced by an army general, ostensibly as a conciliatory gesture amid continuing covert contacts with her.
Awan said that in his petition against his dismissal as PGA, Basir had accused Hassan Waseem Afzal of boasting about being extremely influential without respect for the chairman and the PGA, and for behaving like an outlaw without any respect for procedures. The NAB chairman and NAB Assistant Director Kaleemuddin Qureshi are the two other respondents in the petition.
Basir moved the petition against his dismissal, which he said was prompted to punish him because he had refused to oblige Hassan Waseem Afzal in meeting Brig (retd) Aslam Hayat Qureshi, the then commerce secretary and co-accused with Benazir and Zardari in the ARY Gold reference case. Afzal had tried to convince Basir to meet Brig Qureshi, in his (Afzal's) Lahore office stating that Qureshi was innocent, said Basir in his petition. Basir has been granted a stay against his dismissal by the Lahore High Court. Awan said that Benazir Bhutto and Zardari had boldly faced various allegations – including those of corruption with the latest being their ''involvement in the Iraq Oil for Food Programme''.
He said that Pakistanis and party workers were grateful to her for facing these charges boldly without compromising her position. Farooq Hasan was also quoted as aserting: "Benazir Bhutto will return to Pakistan and lead her party in the elections, and the party cannot be blackmailed by these negative tactics of dictators".
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